Hotels: Likes and Dislikes

The Media Captain travels a lot. Ok, a lot is an understatement. This summer especially, we’ve been on the road what seems like every week. That’s a lot of airports, a lot of checked luggage, a lot of fast-food pit stops, and especially, a lot of hotels. So many hotels, in fact, that we have devised a list of hotel “Likes” and “Dislikes” so specific, we’re sure that you may have never even thought of some of them.

Likes:

Free continental breakfast: Ok, we’re starting with an easy one. I mean who doesn’t like free breakfast? But we’re not talking muffins, coffee, and a few choices of cold cereal. We’re talking eggs. We’re talking sausage. We’re talking potatoes. There’s nothing like waking up and having a hot breakfast… for free. And yes, we’re a sucker for those fluffy breakfast buffet scrambled eggs.

Coffee served throughout the day: We not only spend a lot of time sleeping in hotels, we also spend a lot of time in hotel conference rooms. Pretty much all hotels serve coffee in the morning (whether there is a free breakfast or not), but being able to get it all throughout the day is a real treat.

Outlets located on the nightstand lamps: Yay! We can plug our phone in AND keep it next to us while we sleep. Our life is complete.

A place to buy snacks: Ok, I guess we’ll take a vending machine, but what we’re really talking about here is a little snack area in the lobby where we can buy a bag of chips, maybe some candy, a soda, or even in the best of snack areas, maybe even a lean cuisine or frozen pizza (these, of course, also require that you provide us with a microwave).

Free WiFi: Every hotel should have WiFi and no hotel should charge for it. Enough said.

Good Cosmetics: It’s always a treat to walk into a hotel room and see a good brand of shampoo or a body lotion that you really like waiting for you in the bathroom.

Delivery menus at the front desk: Whether we don’t have time to run out for lunch, or our hotel happens to be located in the middle of nowhere, we love good suggestions for food delivery, or better yet, a stack of menus from places that will deliver right to our conference room. Yes, we love Jimmy Johns and Subway, but four days in a row is just too much.

Dislikes:

How cold the bathrooms are in hotel lobbies: You may not have noticed this one before, but you will now. Every time you walk into a bathroom in a hotel lobby, it is at least ten degrees colder than the rest of the hotel. The same goes for bathrooms in restaurants. We don’t get it.

Lack of outlets in hotel rooms: We’re so happy that there are enough outlets for you to plug in all of your electronics (i.e. TV, telephone, alarm clock), but it’s 2012. We have a lot of things to plug in too. Why don’t you have enough outlets for us? And why are the outlets you do have either in the bathroom or behind the biggest and heaviest piece of furniture in the room?

For the most part, you can always count on hotels to provide you with shampoo and conditioner. But why not toothpaste? We’ll take toothpaste over conditioner any day. Our hair is already silky smooth, thank you very much.

When hotels have one treadmill and one elliptical and say they have a gym. No, that is not a gym… and even though you put a mirror in front of them to make it look like you have 2 treadmills and 2 ellipticals, we’ll figure it out soon enough. Give us a bike. Give us some weights. Then and only then can you call what you have a gym.

White hotel towels: Why are hotel towels always white? We don’t get it and we don’t like it.

Hair: This is the worst of the worst. Have you ever seen a piece of hair in the shower or sink or bed before you’ve even used it? That is just the grossest thing ever. Ew.

Jason Parks

Our Mission

The Media Captain is your one stop shop for everything digital. We’re a Digital Marketing Company based in Columbus serving clients throughout the country. Our goal is simple. Our Digital Marketing Agency is motivated to build and drive traffic to your website while helping you generate new online business.

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Lauren is a public relations guru who also loves music and constantly stays abreast on the latest fashion trends.

Lauren helps our clients generate exposure, which has major SEO benefits. She will connect a local tennis club (for example) to a major tennis websites blog where they become a contributor by writing article content and providing video content. In turn, this gets referral traffic to the clients website while providing a backlink, an important SEO metric.

Lauren also spearheads the content creation side of things. She writes client blog content, email blasts, website copy and social media posts.

In her spare time, Lauren enjoys going to concerts at Express Live and trying new restaurants around the Short North. She will help keep your brand on the cutting edge.

Carson Jones – Growth Strategist

Carson is originally from Louisville, Kentucky and brings some Southern charm to The Media Captain’s team.

He helps with the business development side. When you rank well on Google, there is new business to nurture!

His mom in Louisville owns a video production company so Carson is able to easily relate to other small business owners. He is also very active in the digital world. He makes connections with influencers on Instagram to help promote numerous e-commerce endeavors.

In his spare time, Carson likes to golf and take it easy with friends. He is also a huge Gary Vaynerchuk junkie and is constantly listening to his podcasts and YouTube videos. Carson highly recommends listening to Gary V if you want to get motivated and learn about the digital marketing world.

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Alex Krempasky – Digital Marketing Strategist

Alex is an old school newspaper journalist at heart who thrives in the fast-paced digital environment.

In the past, he worked for the Columbus Crew and Oakland Raiders and in his spare time works the press box for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

His journalistic mentality perfectly carries over to the digital marketing world. Alex helps craft content for internal and external articles while overseeing clients SEO campaigns. He also handles the content creation on the social media side and helps craft email marketing campaigns for clients.

Alex is the “last line of defense” before a graphic, article, social post, email blast or anything else that touches the web is posted on behalf of the client.

Alex is also a huge Jimmy Buffett and Green Day fan. Back in the day, he started his own band. That’s a conversation for another time!

Stefanie Parks – Ecommerce & Adwords Strategist

Stefanie is an e-commerce guru who just so happens to be Jason’s sister. If you’ve already read Jason’s bio, Stefanie is the very same sister who helped Jason sell all of those Beanie Babies at the garage sale many years ago. Stefanie also got started in sales early, taking orders and payment for handmade necklaces while at overnight camp and then fulfilling the orders once she got home after the summer. She almost paid for her whole summer with that money! What can we say, sales and entrepreneurship must run in the Parks family!

In addition to starting DermWarehouse with Jason, Stefanie was also instrumental in growing The Media Captain. Since day one, she has either worked full-time or consulted on certain projects for TMC. You should have seen The Media Captain’s first website back in 2010 before Stefanie re-launched a new version (thank goodness). Stefanie has a good eye and knows when changes and improvements should be made. She will always guide the process seamlessly and take the lead when necessary. Stefanie is not scared to make her opinion known and to fight for the things she strongly believes in.

If you need help on an e-commerce project, Stefanie is your girl. She has grown DermWarehouse into one of the top dermatological skincare websites in the country by utilizing her skillset in SEO, Google Shopping, content creation and on-site SEO. She is able to take all of this knowledge from growing her own e-commerce shop and help clients execute their own digital strategy.

In her spare time, Stefanie loves to travel. She has climbed to Mount Everest Base Camp, floated down the Amazon River, and gone scuba diving with sharks. She has been to nearly 50 countries around Asia, South America, and Europe and loves to share travel tips/stories. The one thing that Stefanie loves more than travel, however, is food. She will eat anything and (somehow) is always hungry. If you’re a foodie, chat with Stef, and she will certainly give you a run for your money. As much as she loves travel and food, however, there’s nothing she loves more than digital marketing and e-commerce (and no, we didn’t make her write that).

Stefanie has a keen business sense and knows what needs to be done to help your company generate more sales and more revenue. She will say what’s on her mind and always give you her honest, straightforward opinion.

Dylan Weaver – Digital Marketing Strategist

Dylan’s background is in the journalism industry. Before joining The Media Captain, he worked for ABC 6 as a production specialist.

Dylan is a jack of all trades. He is proficient in video production, photography, editing and graphic design. He also is an Adwords and SEO guru. If there is something broken that needs fixed at our office, he also handles this (like we said, he his a jack of all trades).

Dylan is responsible for overseeing and managing client accounts and making sure all of the pieces connect for each digital campaign.

Dylan loves the outdoors. He often travels to Hocking Hills to hike, rock climb and whenever he gets the chance, camps outdoors. He is also actively involved in his church and runs the production of the Sunday services for Jersey Church.

Michelle Dechicco - Front End Web Developer

Michelle is a hybrid of a developer and a digital marketer. She assists in putting together client websites but also helps to create graphics, conduct on-site SEO audits, landing pages and implementing dynamic retargeting and conversion pixels.

Michelle’s development and marketing background was molded when she worked for a local fitness company. She now strengthens all of The Media Captain’s client websites with her diverse skill-set. She is a graduate of Ohio State University.

Mike Cottrill – Director of Application Development

Mike is the development lead for The Media Captain. He will get his hands dirty and custom code a site or install a WordPress theme while also overseeing other developers on staff to ensure a smooth sailing project, from start to finish.

If you have a technical question pertaining to your website or want to make sure you are taking the right steps in choosing a certain platform or technology, you’ll speak with Mike directly.

Mike grew up in Chillicothe. He graduated from DeVry in 2000 and has over 18 years of development experience.

He leveraged his passion for development and sports by taking a job as an app developer for STATS, the sports data company in Chicago. Other development career opportunities for SafeAuto Insurance and Chase brought him back to the capital city of the Buckeye State, where he has resided with his family since 2008.

Mike’s development skillset on both the front end and back end of a website are second to none. He is well versed in HTML and CSS and is also proficient with all modern programming languages.

Mike has built custom websites and applications for Fortune 500 companies. He also developed SafeAuto’s mobile app from scratch and took it to the Android and Apple Marketplace.

Unlike most developers, Mike has a marketing mindset, which makes him a perfect fit for the development lead at a marketing agency. He is constantly creating new apps to take to the marketplace. In his spare time, he enjoys taking in sports and collecting sports cards with his son.

About the Owner, Jason Parks

Jason isn’t your typical agency guy. At the age of ten, Jason’s parents left him home alone. He decided to take this opportunity to check out the neighborhood and noticed that there was a community garage sale taking place. Within an hour, with the help of his sister, he had all of their Beanie Babies (remember those?) lined up on the front lawn, ready to be sold.

Jason’s entrepreneurial spirit has been a key factor in The Media Captain’s growth into one of the largest agencies in Ohio. It is this spirit and love of what he does that enables him and his team to generate great results for other businesses.

In high school, while most people worked a standard job, Jason sold sports tickets throughout the country on eBay. In college, he posted a job as a tennis instructor on Craigslist and turned this into a three-year job with a steady flow of clients. Jason always found a way to market services or products on the Internet to generate a profit.

After graduating college, Jason wanted to become a sports reporter. His background was in digital video. He received a job offer at a news station in Butte, Montana but decided to utilize his skillset in video, social media and digital marketing instead to start The Media Captain. The domain name (themediacaptain.com) was available for $10. A captain is viewed as a leader and his goal has always been for The Media Captain to be the leader in digital marketing. And this is the story of how The Media Captain was born in 2010! There was a void in the market for professionals who could help brands bolster their social media presence and Jason was able to capitalize on this gap in the marketplace.

Jason has worked directly with large brands on digital campaigns like McGraw-Hill, Sears, SafeAuto and Luxxotica. He has also run campaigns with the UFC, NASCAR, the Cleveland Cavaliers and consulted with the Columbus Blue Jackets on sponsorship activation efforts.

Jason loves getting his hands dirty, it is a philosophy that he feels separates The Media Captain from the competition. When you run a business, you know what works and what doesn’t work, which benefits the client.

Jason recently decided to start an e-commerce company, DermWarehouse, which sells dermatological skincare products throughout the country. His dad, a dermatologist in Columbus, has sold ten products at his skincare practice for many years. Jason decided to scale this operation so the products could be sold throughout the country.

In addition, Jason is a regular contributor on Entrepreneur.com and has been featured in the New York Times, The Huffington Post, Inc., the Columbus Dispatch, Social Media Today, DigiDay and Search Engine Watch (to name a few).

To function properly, Jason needs at least three cups of coffee per day. In the past, he made it a New Year’s resolution to scale back on the caffeine, but he failed miserably. He also enjoys rooting on his hometown Columbus Blue Jackets, as he is a hockey fanatic. His favorite restaurant in town is Condado, the local taco shop across the street from The Media Captain’s office. He also enjoys working out and hanging out with family and friends.